The rip kicks off with a woman driving through the night, reassurring a terrified individual on the phone that she is safe. But the moment she steps out of her car, the reassurance ends in a brutal ambush. Before she takes her final breath, she manages to fire off one last text message. This isn’t just a random victim; she is Captain Jackie Velez of the Miami-Dade Police Department.
The Feds roll into Miami with an iron fist, and the primary target of their investigation is Jackie’s own team, the Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT). Rumors are swirling that these elite officers have been moonlighting as high-end burglars, hitting drug houses for personal gain. The Feds are convinced Jackie was dirty and that her side hustle is what got her killed.
Every member is interrogated, including Detective Sergeant JD Byrne, who was romantically involved with Jackie.
When one Fed gets particularly disrespectful about Jackie’s legacy, JD snaps and beats him up only for us to realize the Fed is actually Del, JD’s younger brother. In the wake of the tragedy, Lieutenant Dane Dumars is promoted to Captain. He almost immediately receives an anonymous tip about a house in Hialeah stuffed with cash.
The $20 Million Jackpot in the Attic
Dane gathers the squad for an off-the-books search, but his behavior is incredibly suspicious. He tells different team members different amounts regarding the tip, and he’s constantly staring at a photo of his son and his tattoos like a man who is preparing for a betrayal. When they arrive at the house, the street is eerily empty. The only resident is Desi Molina, who insists there are no drugs in her grandmother’s house.
However, their money-sniffing dog goes wild, leading them to a suspiciously clean attic, despite the fact that the entire house is basically a dumpster.
Behind a false wall, they strike gold: buckets stacked with approximately $20 million in cartel money.
Dane immediately confiscates everyone’s phones, citing security, and tasks Lolo and Numan with counting the cash.
This is where the red flags fly high, protocol says report the find immediately, yet Dane keeps everything completely off the grid.
His instincts about the phones were right, though because one of the cops Mike Ru is seen texting someone on a burner that they just hit a $20M jackpot.
The 30-Minute Deadline and the Morse Code
While interrogating Desi—who turns out to be a seasoned snitch for the Feds—the team receives an anonymous call telling them to Leave in 30 minutes or die because $150k isn’t worth dying for.
JD begins to fear that his best friend Dane is the crooked cop the FBI is looking for especially since he told JD the tip said $300K, so why did he lie? And the fact that Dane refuses to show him the tip only makes it worse. JD starts to think Dane used them to pull a robbery.
JD calls a DEA officer named Matty Nix for a background check on Dane. Matty paints a bleak picture: Dane lost his son to cancer, his marriage fell apart, and he’s broke —the perfect profile for a corrupt cop.
This suspicion is seemingly confirmed when Desi overbears Dane telling Lolo and Numan that they should just keep the money and tell HQ they only found $150k. Desi spills these beans to Detective Mike, but what’s he gonna do? He’s equally corrupt.
They spend most of the movie counting money while Mike Ru stays outside guarding the place and coordinating with his people to come steal the money.
That is until a light in a neighboring house begins to flicker. JD deduces it’s Morse Code spelling out PIGS. The cartel is watching. JD goes to investigate, followed by Dane. When the 30-minute timer hits zero, a hail of bullets rains down on the house. Lolo, a mother of two, is shot in the leg, but the team manages to stabilize her and fight off the attackers.
The Mole in the Tactical Narcotics Team
In a bizarre turn, The cartel member from the Morse Code house reveals they weren’t the ones who attacked. They value $20 million, but not enough to deal with the heat of killing five cops. He tells them point-blank: one of their own killed Jackie.
With the cartel now washing their hands off the $20 million, Dane and the others are happy it’s up for grabs. This causes a fight between JD and Dane, who calls him corrupt. Dane was Jackie’s second-in-command and could’ve known about the stash house, killed her, taken over the raid, and stolen the money. Dane fires back that JD was gone too long and came back with a cartel friend.
Someone uses this distraction to set the house on fire Their vehicles are destroyed in the earlier gunfight, so escape isn’t an option.
Fortunately Matty Nix arrives with an armored vehicle just in time to rescue them, but for some reason Dane insists the ladies stay back. What if the attackers come back?
As they drive off, everyone draws their guns in case the enemies come back, but then Dane suddenly confronts Mike Ru for being a snitch.
It turns out everything Dane said in front of Desi was a trap; he knew she would tell Mike. Dane never intended to steal the money—he was flushing out the rat. He knew Mike was a snitch the moment the anonymous caller mentioned the $150k figure, which was a specific number he only told Mike but he needed to let it play out to see who else he was working with. He purposely told his crew members different amounts to find the traitor, and he followed JD to the Morse code house earlier to explain the plan.
The Rip 2026 Ending Explained
The original tip came from Jackie herself. She texted Dane right before she died. She knew about the cartel money, and she was working with Desi that night to use it as bait for dirty cops. She just didn’t live long enough to finish it.
The fight between JD and Dane was a ruse to steal Mike’s burner phone.
When Mike argues that Dane took everyone’s phones so how could he text anyone, Dane calmly pulls out the burner and uses Mike’s face to unlock it.
The final shocker is that Matty Nix, the DEA backup, is in on it. He didn’t call for support; he came alone to finish the job. He is the anonymous shooter who attacked the house. He tries to deny it, but Mike calls his phone on his burner, proving they killed Velez together.
Realizing he’s caught, Matty shoots Mike Ru and takes JD and Dane hostage. But they are ten steps ahead—JD already alerted his brother Del, who set a checkpoint and surround the truck
Despite being surrounded, Matty won’t surrender. He gets his escape when Mike attempts to shoot at him. He steals a car, and it becomes a badass car chase. JD chases after him while Dane chases after Mike. Ultimately, JD catches up to him after his car falls off a bridge. The man still won’t give up and attempts to shoot JD, who empties the bullets in him.
At the end of the day, the money they were supposedly transporting were bags full of books. The real money is still in the paints bucket left with the ladies. Mike is arrested, and the money is handed over to the feds.
Surprisingly, not a dollar is missing. I really thought they were at least going to pocket a bundle because Lolo was seen lamenting how life-changing a bundle of that money would be to her. I guess no crookedness here, straight and narrow police.
Under Florida informant laws, anyone who helps the state seize criminal assets can claim up to 20%. With $20 million recovered, Desi walks away with $4 million. JD and his brother Del finally share a forced, but meaningful, hug.
The TNT team is cleared, and Desi is officially a millionaire!
